


daughter

by epifania



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Gen, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Season 5 MSF, season 5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-02
Updated: 2014-12-02
Packaged: 2018-02-27 22:43:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2709365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/epifania/pseuds/epifania
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A missing scene in the middle of "Coda".</p>
            </blockquote>





	daughter

**Author's Note:**

> One of the many things I'm bitter about after this joke of a mid-season finale is that the writers robbed us of any sort of proper interaction between Carol and Beth, something I've been looking forward to for _weeks_. Here's a sad little attempt to fix this.  
>  Very quick, unbetad, English isn't my first language so please forgive if you see any mistakes.  
> As always coming up with a title is the hardest part.

The first thing Carol registers as she wakes up is a pair of blue eyes, wide and full of anticipation, watching her intently. For a few seconds she blinks drowsily, certain that her dazed mind is playing tricks on her, but then the face of the girl hovering over her breaks into a teary smile which looks like a ray of sunlight piercing through the heavy clouds, and when the girl bends down to hug her - gently, mindful of her numerous injuries - there’s only so much Carol can do to keep from crying.

***

As soon as the door closes behind Dawn they fill each other in on everything that has happened since the Prison’s fall. Beth notices how Carol seems to stumble over certain parts of her story, how she needs to close her eyes and just breathe for a fraction of a second after mentioning Lizzie and Mika, how she never really explains what happened to them. She just squeezes the woman’s hand reassuringly and listens to the rest. Carol notices how an enormous weight seems to fall from Beth’s shoulders, how her face changes instantly making her look at least ten years younger as soon as she mentions that Maggie is alive and well. She tucks a loose curl behind the girl’s ear and they carry on with their stories. They sit there for what feels like hours, grieving and reminiscing and laughing at how stubborn Daryl is and how inept for this world but determined to learn Noah seems to be, and for a moment it almost feels normal.

Carol tells Beth how proud Hershel would be if he could see her now, and pretends not to notice the tears welling up in the girl’s eyes at her father’s mention. Beth does the same after she tells Carol how lucky Sophia was to have such a mother.

They are interrupted by a loud knock on the door and one of Dawn’s cops enters the room without waiting for an answer, He unceremoniously throws a bundle of dirty clothes on the bed, almost hitting Carol in the face with them.

"Get your shit together, and quick", he grunts, ignoring both women’s confused looks. "Your people are here to get y’all."

***

Later - it feels like a whole lifetime later, really - when she heavily leans on Tyreese in front of Grady Memorial, Carol is pretty sure that the only thing keeping her from wailing and falling to the ground like Maggie are the meds she’s still on. She wants to yell until her throat is sore, she wants to rip her hair out, she wants to to scratch her face until it bleeds; just like her heart does. Instead, she just stands there, her whole body shaking from violent sobs, as she watches Maggie clutch her sweet little sister’s lifeless body.

Another little girl I failed, she thinks. Another daughter I lost.


End file.
